Data carriers, such as e.g. identification cards, credit cards, bank cards, cash payment cards and the like, are increasingly being used in a wide range of service sectors, for example in cashless payment transactions and in in-house applications. As a result of their widespread use, they are a typical mass-produced article. The production thereof, i.e. the manufacture of the card structure and the recording of the card-specific user data, must be easy and cost-effective.
On the other hand, the cards must be designed in such a way that they are protected as far as possible against forgery and falsification.
The many types of identification cards already on the market and still in the development stage demonstrate that considerable efforts have been made in this regard.
EP 0 216 947 B1 discloses methods for laser processing systems for producing animated image effects on laminated composites and for producing optical illusions. In such methods, a polycarbonate film composite composed of a plurality of thin films with security prints located therebetween is produced by means of lamination in the customary credit card format.
An inscription or a different type of information is written into the card composite by means of a laser beam. In this case, an upper side of the card is provided with a so-called lens grid in a hot-melt process in a thermal transfer press. The upper edge of the lens grid is preferably arranged in one plane with the card body, so that a certain care is taken of the lens surface.
Through the lenses of the lens grid which are thus formed, a laser beam is then deflected at an oblique orientation with respect to the card surface, said beam being focussed in the region of the respective lens and being deflected onto a specific inner plane of the card. Defined areas of blackening are produced in this plane. In this way, at least two authenticity features which are dependent on the observer's viewing direction can be written into the card.
Cards produced in this way disadvantageously require the necessary production step of moving and tilting the card and/or the laser in order to allow the irradiation at different angles so as to produce an optical illusion. Such data carriers are time-consuming and costly to produce. Moreover, imprecise relief-based optical illusions are produced due to the movement processes of at least a plurality of components.